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Maternity Services

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what recent representations his Department has (a) received from and (b) made to local NHS organisations on delays in receiving additional funding for improving maternity care; [228173]

(2) pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Macclesfield of 5 February 2008, Official Report, columns 783-84W, on maternity services, how much of the £330 million will be available in (a) the 2008-09 financial year and (b) each of the next two financial years. [228226]

Ann Keen: We have received a recent representation from the Royal College of Midwives. A national newspaper also made representations to finance officers of NHS trusts.

The £330 million is our national estimate of the total investment primary care trusts (PCTs) need to make over 2008-09 to 2010-11 to support delivery of the Maternity Matters strategy. This is being provided to the national health service as part of their overall PCT allocations. We then use the operating framework to set out our priorities for the NHS—including Maternity Matters. But how best to deliver those priorities, including how much resource to spend on different policy areas in each year, is a matter for the NHS to decide locally in the light of their local circumstances.

Medical Records: Data Protection

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures are in place to protect patient records from data loss from (a) hospitals, (b) primary care trusts and (c) mental health trusts. [227787]

Mr. Bradshaw: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) on 15 July 2008, Official Report, columns 354-55W.

MRSA: Hertfordshire

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients contracted MRSA in hospitals in West Hertfordshire in the last five years. [228363]

Ann Keen: The latest information available on the number of cases of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) reported to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust is shown in the following table.


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 Number of reports to the HPA MRSA rate per 10,000 bed days

April 2003 to March 2004

45

1.9

April 2007 to September 2007

37

1.8

October 2007 to March 2008

15

1.2

April 2008 to June 2008

4

0.7


NHS Identity: Manpower

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff in his Department are working on the NHS Identity, broken down by payband. [228274]

Mr. Bradshaw: Three members of staff work on the NHS Identity at the following paybands: Grade 7, senior information officer and information officer.

NHS: Drugs

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on which dates officials or Ministers in his Department met representatives of the pharmaceutical industry in the last six months to discuss (a) the recent increase in the practice of parallel trading and (b) a potential shortage of medicine stocks in the run-up to the introduction of the new drug-pricing regime in January 2009; and if he will place in the Library copies of the agenda and minutes of each meeting. [228269]

Dawn Primarolo: No meetings to discuss parallel trading have taken place. The availability of medicines in the run up to the introduction of the new Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme has been discussed as part of the confidential negotiations currently underway between the Government and the pharmaceutical industry. It would not be appropriate to release information on these confidential discussions.

NHS: Pensions

Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the implications of the deficit in the National Health Service Contributory Pension Fund. [229200]

Ann Keen: The NHS Pension Scheme is unfunded, so when benefits fall due for payment they are met from Government revenues. There is no actual pension fund or deficit. However, in any particular year, income from contributions from employers and employees is used to offset the costs of paying benefits to pensioners.

NHS: Public Participation

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which Local Involvement Networks have been established but are not yet operational. [227966]

Ann Keen: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Ophthalmology: Hemel Hempstead

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many opticians there are per 1,000 people in Hemel Hempstead constituency. [228366]


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Ann Keen: The information is not held centrally. The Information Centre for health and social care will publish the number of General Ophthalmic Services ophthalmic practitioners per 100,000 population, as at 31 December 2007, in the report General Ophthalmic Services: Workforce Statistics for England and Wales, 31 December 2007. It is expected that the report will be published in November 2008, with information available by primary care trust and strategic health authority.

Primary Care Trusts

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list primary care trusts in the order of level of deprivation of the community each serves. [228106]

Dawn Primarolo: The Indices of Deprivation 2007 are the Government's official measure of multiple deprivation at small area level. The Index of Multiple Deprivation brings together 37 different indicators which cover specific aspects or dimensions of deprivation, covering income, employment, health and disability, education, training and skills, barriers to housing and services, crime and living environment.

The Index of Multiple Deprivation is a relative measure of deprivation and therefore cannot be used to say ‘how much’ more deprived area X is than area Y, though it can be used to say that area X is more deprived than area Y.

The following primary care trusts (PCTs) are listed according to the rank order given by the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007.


22 Oct 2008 : Column 378W

22 Oct 2008 : Column 379W
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